P3D Digital and being artistic

[Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxx>]

Ronald Beck wrote:

> What's a turntable?  :-) :-) :-)
> Our's is currently used as an amusement park ride for plastic dinosaurs.

Actually, vinyl is making a comeback in the audiophile market. And it
never went away in the european markets...

I raise these points about analogue versus digital so that people
involved in the creative process who have these vague, clawing feelings
that there digital source materials are somehow far less comfortable and
satisfying than their analgue materials will know that they have good
instincts and are in fact in good company.

Almost all of the creative arts have steadfastly and sometimes
painstakingly maintained at least one analogue generation (typically the
first generation) because the analgue mediums are usually much more
organic, comfortable, satisfying, and impart qualities into the finished
product that digital cannot. For example, digital recording has been
around for quite some time now, but most discriminating artist track on
analogue because it sounds "better." Very few artist really "draw" in
the digital domain; they use digital for quick convenient post effects
and production compatibility. Digital cameras are at this point
eminently suitable for photography whose end application is halftone
reproduction, yet if time allows most fine photographers prefer to work
with film because of the organics (contrast range, tonality, texture) of
the medium...

Digital is fast, convenient, and in some applications cheap, but is not
a final substitute for analogue mediums in many artistic applications.

BTW, my old Philips 312 turntable with shure V15 catridge and a good
vinyl analague recording will consistently just amaze my friends teenage
kids who have only heard CDs in their musical lifetimes...

Eric G.


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